Qatar Sussex Stakes (Group 1)

HAVING started the season in a handicap, Paddington (Aidan O’Brien/Ryan Moore) has outstripped all expectations, and in winning the Group 1 Sussex Stakes at Goodwood on Wednesday he was stretching his Group 1-winning sequence to four, after wins in the Irish 2000 Guineas, St James’s Palace Stakes and Eclipse.

Back at a mile for the Sussex Stakes and having to deal with ground described by the jockeys as heavy, Paddington was asked to make all by Ryan Moore, and as he led the field towards the stands rail, Frankie Dettori attempted to bag that spot on Inspiral, who was the first to throw down a challenge to the 1/2 favourite.

She was also the first to cry enough, however, and dropped away tamely on ground she probably detested, leaving Facteur Cheval (Jerome Reynier/Maxime Guyon) to give chase to the winner; the French raider fought hard to get within a length of Paddington inside the last furlong, but the winner dug deeper still and won by a length and a half. Charyn was three lengths further back in third.

O’Brien paid tribute to the winner when asked to compare him to “The Iron Horse”, Giant’s Causeway, who thrived on a similarly aggressive campaign to become perhaps the most popular horse to emerge from the Coolmore ranks.

“Paddington is much quicker than the Giant was,” said O’Brien without hesitation. “He’s tactically quick but he can quicken as well. The Giant was tactically quick and was dour after that. This horse can really turn it on when you have to, on all types of ground. He is unique.”

Lot of options

Asked about future targets, O’Brien replied in typical fashion.

“It will depend on what the lads want to do, and we’ll talk to them after a week,” he said. “But he’s got a lot of options. He could go to York; he could do anything. But he is very special, we think.

“With every race, he is getting heavier, which is very unusual, and he is getting calm. He is three or four kilos heavier today than he was the last day.”

Moore, normally a man of few words, was particularly fulsome in his praise for Paddington.

“It is a hard thing to say but he gives you the feel that he might be as good a horse as I have ridden,” was the uncompromising view of his jockey.

“He is exceptional, and he has handled everything that we have put in front of him, whether it’s a mile, 10, good ground, soft. He is a straightforward horse who thrives on his racing. Someone asked me yesterday if he would go on this ground and I said, ‘he would go on snow’.”

MAGICAL Sunset (Richard Hannon/Kevin Stott) at 18/1 produced a powerful late surge on the stands rail to gain a career-best victory in the Group 3 Oak Tree Stakes for Amo Racing, getting right back to form on ground which suits her well.

After briefly looking like she wouldn’t get a gap when needed, the daughter of Kodiac surged past the weakening leader Internationalangel inside the last and repelled the strong challenge of joint-favourite Breege (John Quinn/Jason Hart) to win by three-parts of a length. Dream Of Love (Charlie Appleby/William Buick) running on late to grab third, two lengths behind Breege.

Magical Sunset had shaped like a non-stayer over a stiff mile in the Coral Distaff at Sandown on her previous start, and the drop back to seven furlongs also looked in her favour here, as Richard Hannon noted afterwards.

The trainer, who won this race in 2019 with subsequent Sun Chariot Stakes heroine Billesdon Brook, mentioned an entry in the Group 3 Prix de Lieurey at Deauville on August 15th, for which she is being considered despite having a penalty for this win, although that race is over a mile.

Big Evs on Nunthorpe trail

BIG Evs (Mick Appleby/Jason Hart) was a big-priced winner of the Windsor Castle Stakes at Royal Ascot, and showed there was absolutely no fluke about that all-the-way success by again making all in contrasting conditions to win the Group 3 Molecomb Stakes, putting himself in the picture for a tilt at the Nunthorpe Stakes at York later this month.

The Blue Point colt was drawn closest to the favoured stands rail but was quite weak in the market with heavy ground clearly a concern, and he was eventually sent off a lukewarm 9/4 joint-favourite.

Bouncing out sharply from the stalls, Hart soon had Big Evs in pole position, but the rider deserves credit for not going all out in front but using his track position to stack his rivals up behind him while keeping something in reserve for the finish.

That smart tactic proved a problem for the other joint-favourite Kylian, on whom Ryan Moore was forced to sit and suffer in rear before making a late charge when the gaps opened.

He threatened briefly when in full flight, but both Big Evs and Purosangue (Richard Hannon/Oisin Murphy) had got first run, and they finished in that order, with Big Evs responding gamely to score by a neck, with Kylian a length and a quarter further back in third.

Appleby said: “Big Evs has done that very well. I don’t think he really liked the ground, but he has toughed it out. I think the Nunthorpe is a realistic target. We will speak more when we have all calmed down a bit.”

IF you’re going to call a horse The Goat, it had either be very good or have a sense of humour, and the Andrew Balding-trained horse of that name moved closer to the former description with an eye-popping victory in the mile and a half Coral Handicap under Jason Watson.

Making his handicap debut with his maiden status still intact, the son of Cracksman had never raced on soft ground, but his pedigree suggested that he might improve for a test of stamina on soft ground, and that proved to be quite an understatement, as The Goat galloped on remorselessly to beat his rivals by upwards of a dozen lengths.

It remains to be seen if the result flatters him with plenty of his rivals all at sea in behind, but margins like that are rare indeed at ‘Glorious’ Goodwood, and Balding – who made it a double on the card when of Flora Of Bermuda too the juvenile fillies’ contest – will have enjoyed his day in the rain more than most.

IRISH trainers dominated the bumper at Perth on Wednesday, representing the first four in the betting, and that quartet duly filled the frame, with victory going to the Gerry Quinn-trained Aughafatten scoring at 6/1 under Dara McGill.